We’re now 24 hours in to the KAN UAP Easter residential and everything is off the ground and in full swing! Excitingly, this is the first time our three cohorts have all been in residence at the same venue, and much of the focus up to now has been on ‘breaking the ice’ and integrating the three. The year 12 have made significant progress over their time on the programme, and really do provide a fantastic example to those in the cohorts below – an added dimension to what we are offering this time!

In terms of lessons, our long-term partners the Unreasonables (having rebranded from the Young Leadership Consultancy due to their aspiration to create ‘unreasonably ambitious leaders across the UK’) kicked things off for the year 10 and year 11, while the year 12 had a general catch-up and discussion about what they hope to take from the residential this time, continuing their role as trailblazers for the programme! All three cohorts came together for a series of inter-cohort activities later in the afternoon, and day one finished with a talk from Verity Myers, a recent Cambridge graduate now working for a global consultancy. Verity provided a great start to the talks for the week and a reminder of the value of what outsiders and people with a story to tell can bring to our programme. It really is fantastic for our students to be exposed to the range of opportunities and industries out there.

Saturday morning has seen a range of different lessons with teachers from five different schools – Skinner’s Kent Academy, the three independent schools in the Kent Academy Network, our hosts Sevenoaks, Tonbridge and Benenden, and Caterham School. The year 11 and year 12 have enjoyed Maths, English and Science lessons, with feedback from the teachers taking the sessions very impressive indeed. A new venture this time is the A-Level specific provision for our year 12, with each student enjoying an individual or small group lesson in each of their subjects over the course of the week. In addition to teacher expertise this allows significant student collaboration. One of the key elements of the programme is the opportunity for likeminded students to come together in our environment, and the students are a fantastic resource for each other, in addition to the other resources we are able to provide. Check out our twitter feed (@AandAFoundation) for evidence of one of our year 12 teaching his peers about Abnormalities in Psychology – impressive stuff!